The Great Escape
by It's nine in the afternoon
Summary: 7 friends venture into their local basketball arena to find a book that's worth 1,000,000 so they can save their school I wrote this in sixth grade, please don't blame me now if it's bad
1. Chapter 1

The Great Escape

The Great Escape

By Celia MalloryChapter 1

"No!" I shouted. "BOO! GO HOME, WISCONSIN!" My friends and I shouted. We were at a Women's Basketball game (as usual), and Michigan, OUR team, was losing (as usual).

"Why can't Michigan win for ONCE??" My friend, Renee, exclaimed.

" I don't know. Heck, why do we even go to their games anymore? We all know that they're going to lose!" I joked. We all knew why we came to the game. We came to the games for two reasons. One, was we all had a huge love of Basketball. The second reason was because we're almost all in different classes, so besides lunch, we RARELY get to hang out, so we go to the games to hang.

"Hey, I'm gonna go get some popcorn and a soda. Anyone else wanna come?" Mike asked.

"Sure, I need some more gummy worms!" I said.

"I'll come, but you guys have to wait for me. I gotta get some cash from my dad." Derek exclaimed, walking up the steep steps from his seat in the row in front of me. Mike and I got to the top of the stairs, then waited for Derek. After about seven hours (well, not REALLY) of Derek begging his dad for a dollar, we were all on our way to the candy counter.

"PSST!" I heard, and I spun around. It was Renee. "Hey, lets ditch the guys and go sit over by Michigan's hoop!"

"Sure! I whispered. Now, you might be thinking this was a little bit mean, but my friends and I do this kind of stuff all the time. Someone "ditches" someone else, then we all go find each other. It's like a game.

" Hey, Tori! You comin'?" Derek asked from a little ways ahead.

"Uhh, yeah! I just gotta' run back to my seat to grab an extra dollar!" I shouted back. I turned around, walked around the corner. Then, Renee and I took off. Once we reached the opposite side of the stadium, we found some good seats and sat down. The score changed, the second period started, and the guys still hadn't come yet. We went back to our original seats to find that they had all picked up their stuff and moved.

"What?" Renee exclaimed. As we walked through the three rows we took up with our stuff, I saw a piece of paper on the ground, so I picked it up and read it:

Hey guys, meet us in front of Gate C . Hurry!

-Derek

PS. We know you ditched us!

"Renee! We have to go meet the guys in front of gate C!" I exclaimed. We both charged out of the rows and up the stairs.

"Which gate are we by now?" Renee asked.

"Gate B." I said. " We need to go… that way!" I said, pointing in any random direction. It happened to be to the right, past a candy counter, and over by what would wind up being at Gate A.

"Uh, why don't YOU go that way, and I'll go this way!" Renee exclaimed, pointing in the opposite direction. She was probably right, and I didn't want to be proven wrong.

" What's THAT?!" I exclaimed, pointing towards the right. Her head spun around, and I took off towards the left. I don't know just where she went, but when I found Gate C, it took her about five more minutes to get there. All the guys were there. Mike, the goofy one, Derek, The odd one, Josh, the athletic one, Craig, the crazy one, and Sam, the funny one. They all looked extremely excited about who knows what, so I couldn't help but be excited too. When Renee finally arrived, the guys started picking up their stuff, like we were going somewhere.

"You guys, what's going on?" Renee squeaked, after huffing and puffing from her long run.

"You'll see." Mike smiled mischievously.

" But you have to come with us." Derek said, bouncing up and down. So, Renee and I picked up our stuff and followed them.

"What took you so long?" I whispered to Renee.

"Well, thanks to SOMEONE, I wound up at Gate A, so I had to go ALL the way around the stadium to find you guys!"

"Well sorry!" I said, exaggerating the word sorry. Finally, after a long time of walking, Mike and Derek brought us to an area none of us had ever been to before. It was like a little storage closet. Mike started digging through one of the boxes.

"Uh, Mike? Are you SURE we're suppose to be here?" Sam asked. We WLL knew the answer to this question.

" You're never SUPPOSE to be anywhere, Sam. It's just a matter of whether you're allowed to or not." Mike replied. That's what he ALWAYS said whenever he was asked if we were supposed to be anywhere. Suddenly, he pulled out a poster. It looked like it was new, like it had JUST been made. Mike read it allowed to us:

"Back to back Michigan verses Wisconsin games! Friday, January thirteenth, two thousand eight! Starts at six o'clock and goes till' ten! Come! Tickets five dollars!" He finished.

"Sound cool." I said. "Let's go to it!"

"Tori, that's not what the I showed you this poster is!" Mike exclaimed.

"Well, than what IS the reason?" I asked.

" The reason is WHY they're raising the money. Ann Arbor is running out of money, so the big businesses are leaving. People are starting to have to pay more taxes, they might even have to close down things that are charging money, but not making very much, like Schools!" Mike exclaimed. We all gasped. I mean, we didn't really enjoy school that much, but life without going to school?? It was unimaginable!

" That's terrible!" Renee murmured.

" I know." Mike said. All of a sudden, I remember something I had learned in a class I had taken at my school.

"You guys! I've got it!" I exclaimed. " I've got an idea!"

"What is it?" Everyone started asking at the same time.

" I… I took a class about Ann Arbor. It's heard that there's this book… no, a Diary of the girl our town is named after. It's called… it's called… ' The Great Escape of Anne Arbour and the Cadillac Cowboys.' It's supposed to be worth a million bucks!"

" And what exactly can we do about it?" Craig asked.

" It was said to have been buried right around the area of Crisler Arena, and during construction, some guy found it and put it away in storage. It's hidden somewhere in this building!" I said with a dramatic conclusion.

"Awesome! If we find it, we can donate it to the school, and then the school can pay the town! Ann Arbor Open won't shut down!" Derek exclaimed.

"Are you children REALLY supposed to be in here?"

5


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

We all froze. I felt a hand fall on my shoulder. I gulped.

" I said, are you children really supposed to be here?" The voice said again. I didn't expect Mike to say his famous line _this_ time. I'm pretty sure that if there hadn't been a hand on my shoulder, I would have made a mad dash for our seats.

"The door was open, so we thought we'd, uh, look around." I lied.

"Well, I'll give you kids a warning, but next time I catch you snooping around here, I'm reporting you to the staff." The man said, then walked away. We all walked far away from the room, not wanting to get banned from the arena.

" You guys, do you think Michael Smith might know about her and her group?" Josh asked.

" What would he have to do with it?" Mike asked.

" Well, his band IS called Michael Smith and the Cadillac Cowboys. He might know something about them." Josh replied.

"He's right. We could talk to him on Tuesday during Tech-ed." Mike suggested.

" Sure." I agreed reluctantly. Once we made our way back to our seats, we realized Michigan had caught up to Michigan State. There were 10 seconds left, and the score was 59-61. They would have to make a three to win the game, or a two to tie it.

" Ten!" A group of people called out, counting down. Michigan State had the ball.

"Nine!" Number 33 from Michigan State passes the ball in, but number 21 steals it!

" Eight!" Number 21 dribbles down the court and passes it to number 1.

"Seven!" Number 35 runs behind the three-point line and number 1 passes it to her.

"Six!" Number 1 Shoots a three but misses it.

"Five!" Number 25 gets the rebound and passes it out to Number 52.

" Four!" Number 52 fakes left and throws the ball to number 32.

" Three!" Number 32 shoots a three-pointer.

"Two!" The ball soars through the air…

" One!" Swish! The ball flies into the hoop! The buzzer rings, and it was all over.

"AHH!" We all scream. This had been the first time Michigan had won against Michigan State in an extremely long time. After that, we went to meet our parents, and that was the end of that.

" See you tomorrow, Renee" I exclaimed. Her and I weren't in the same class, so we didn't get to see each other much. As I went to bed that, I knew tomorrow would be a good day.

I was very wrong about ' tomorrow would be a good day.' Monday was HORRIBLE, and Tuesday was barely any better. By the time I got to Tech-ed, the ONLY class all seven of us had together.

" Hey, Michael, could we talk to you about something?" Sam asked Michael, our Tech-ed teacher as we all walked in.

" Sure." He said as he led us into the other room.

" Uh… we were just wondering if you could tell us anything about Anne Arbour and the Cadillac Cowboys?" I stammered.

" Well… wait, why?" He asked.

" Uh… because…" I said trying to make up a good lie. I mean, we couldn't tell ANYBODY about our plan. Otherwise it would be spoiled and ruined, and we'd never save our school.

" Because Tori heard about them in on of her classes, and she was telling us about them, and we thought it sounded pretty cool." Mike exclaimed. See, that's the thing. Mike is funny, but he couldn't lie to save his life. That's why whenever someone asked us what we were up to, someone else always jumped in so we wouldn't get busted. Michael eyed us suspiciously, but started talking.

" Well, first off, as you might have guessed, our town was named after Anne Arbour. She settled here in the late 1700's. She was most famous because she was one of the first cowgirls ever. She and the Cadillac Cowboys roamed the Northeast. They were running from the law, and when they reached where Michigan is today, they decided that they had lost the police who had been chasing them. They searched and searched for an area to settle, until they found an area, which is now where Crisler Arena is. Anne Arbour wrote a diary, and then buried it where Crisler Arena is now. Once people started to here about the buried diary, they called it 'The Great Escape of Anne Arbour and the Cadillac Cowboys,' and people started searching for it. Companies started saying that they would pay huge amounts of money to the person or people that found it. The rumor is that when Crisler Arena was built, some big dummy found it and put it away in storage, somewhere in the building." He told us. All our eyes were wide open, and he could tell that he had told us everything we needed.

"But, I've told you too much already. You guys should get back to work, okay?"

"Okay." We all said. "Thanks, Michael!" I said as I walked out.

" So it's decided. We'll look for the book at the game on Friday." Mike said, once out in the hall. By then it was passing time, and we'd all have to go our separate ways.

" Yep. See you guys on the bus!" I exclaimed as I rushed off to my locker to get my math folder. Ugh. Math was next, and that was my WORST subject. To top it all off, none of my friends were in my math class. I couldn't wait to get on the bus.

Well, math was probably the LONGEST 55 minutes of my life. I met Renee outside by the bus.

" Have you seen Derek?" She asked me once I got out there.

" No, why?" I hadn't seen anybody since Tech-ed class.

" Well, he wasn't at Science class today. Was he at Tech-ed?"

" Yeah." I replied, remembering how he had badgered me to let him stay and play on the computer. " Yeah, he was definitely there."

" Then, why did he miss Science and Social Studies?" Renee asked, confused. Suddenly, as though on cue, Derek ran up.

" Hey guys." He exclaimed.

" Oh my gosh where were you during Science and Social Studies?" Renee exclaimed, as though he had been declared missing for three days.

" Wow, chill! I… uh… missed it." He said.

" Yeah, right!" Both Renee and I declared at the same time. " You were ditching class, weren't you?" I whispered, so Renee wouldn't hear and throw a fit.

" So maybe I was. What does it matter to you?" He questioned. Wow, he really had me stumped there. I mean, WAS it really my business if he was ditching? I couldn't say anything about 'getting good grades' because then I would be considered a teacher's pet.

" Because things get boring when you don't come to classes." I lied. The real reason was that I WAS worried about him. Lately, he had been hanging with these kids who always ditched class and did REALLY bad stuff.

" Well, you should ditch sometime, too. It's really fun." He said. I could tell that there was something kind of odd about the way Derek was acting. I decided that I would write a note, then slip it into his backpack while on the bus. SOMETHING was up with Derek, and I knew I had to get to the bottom of it. Yeah, yeah, I sound like one of those fancy detective types, but you can't blame me. When you're trying to solve a mystery, it's hard to say stuff that DOESN'T sound like a bad impression of a detective. As we all got on to the bus, I pulled a pencil and a little scrap of paper out of my backpack. Once I sat down next to Renee, I started to write:

Derek, what's up with you? I KNOW you're not acting like yourself. I just don't want you to get into any trouble.

- Tori

PS. If you're trying to impress Miranda, she doesn't like the bad boy types.

Once I finished writing, I folded up the note and waited for Derek to walk past to get off the bus.

" Tori, truth or dare?" Renee asked me.

" Wait, what?" I asked. I hadn't been paying any attention.

" Truth or dare?" she repeated.

" Uhh… truth?" I said regretfully.

" What's the most embarrassing thing you've ever done?" She asked. I snapped back into reality. We always played truth or dare on the bus, and this was Renee's favorite question.

" Probably that time when I started singing the words to ' Move Along' on the bus last week." I said. The truth was that I had MANY more embarrassing moments than that one, but I didn't feel like talking about them.

' What about the time that everyone said you wrote that note to…" Renee started trying to explain a story that had wiped out my coolness for so long back in fifth grade.

" No, no, no. DON'T talk about that!" I blurted out, making SURE nobody else heard about it. We all started laughing. Now, as I started to remember clearly, if it hadn't been for the note, Renee and I would be social rejects. Here, let me tell you the story:

It was back in fifth grade. Renee, Sam, Mike, Derek, Josh, Craig and I were all in the same class, but Renee and I weren't friends with Josh, Sam, Derek, Mike and Craig. There was this other guy in our class… Al, I think, and he got this little love note in his locker one day. He accused me of writing it even though I didn't, and everyone else believed him. Some people started hating me for NO apparent reason, and I became a reject. So one day about week after the note thing happened, Derek and Josh were talking to us about what had happened with the note, and I got them to believe me that I didn't write the note. So, they told Sam, Craig and Mike that I didn't write it, and then they started telling everyone else. Soon enough, everyone was on my side, and Al finally admitted that he wrote the note to gain popularity. Sam, Mike, Derek, Josh, Craig, Renee and I have been friends since.

Suddenly, I remembered the note in my left hand, and just as Derek walked by, I slipped it into an open slit in his backpack. Once he got off the bus, Renee asked:

" What was that?"

"You'll find out sooner or later." I replied. The bus pulled up at my stop, and I got off.

"Ugh!" I snorted. It was Wednesday, and everything had just poured out of my backpack. I knelt down to pick it all up.

" Here, let me help you." I heard a voice suggest. I looked up. It was Al.

"No, I got it." I said, reluctant to let him see I was in desperate need of help. But he still bent down and started to help.

" Gosh, I haven't seen you since fifth grade!" He exclaimed.

" It hasn't been long enough." I mumbled.

" What was that? I didn't quite catch that."

" I said it's been too long." I recovered. Few.

" So, uh, what would you think about going to the back-to-back basket ball game on Friday with me?" He asked. Uh, was he joking? Did he REALLY think I would go with him?

" Uh, sorry, I've got plans." I said. I mean, I _wasn't _lying. I did have plans. Plans to go to the game with my friends.

" Oh, that stinks." He replied.

" Yeah, it sure does." I lied. I picked up the rest of my stuff, shoved it in my backpack and stood up.

" Well gotta' go." I said, rushing off.

" See ya around." He replied. Once I was far enough away, I started making gagging sounds.

" Tori, you alright?" Renee asked, walking up behind me.

" Yeah, except for the fact that AL just asked me out!" I exclaimed. A look of pure horror crossed her face.

" Did you say yes?!" She gasped in horror.

" Heck no!" I snorted. "Say YES, to a date with AL?? If I did, call me crazy." Suddenly the bell rang. My first class was Health the only class besides tech-ed that Renee and I had together.

" Let's go!" I exclaimed, breaking into a run. I couldn't afford to be late to class again.

" The Nervous system controls your brain and blah blah blah..." Clair, the health teacher dragged on. I was failing in health, and you can probably see why. During Health, Math and Science, I just daze off usually.

Once Health was over, I went to my locker to get my Spanish books. When I opened my locker, a little note fell out. I bent over, picked it up and opened it. It read:

Tori- I'm not acting this way to impress anyone. I have to ditch class and stuff. You know how Jim and Jared have been harassing me? They said that they would stop if I started hanging out with them, which means ditching class. Don't ask me why they want me to hang with them. Thanx

- Derek

PS. I'm not going to make it to Spanish, Social Studies, or Tech-ed today. PLEASE cover for me!

No way! Was Derek going crazy? I couldn't cover for him so he could ditch class! He WAS going crazy. Suddenly, I noticed another teeny, tiny note lying on the ground at my feet. I picked it up and started to read it.

Tori, meet Renee, Derek, Josh, Sam, Craig and I outside behind the Garbage dump thing at lunchtime.

- Mike

I folded the note up and put it into my pocket. Mike never wrote notes to people, so this must have been a big emergency. Three more periods till I found out WHAT was wrong.

_Ugh_. Five more minutes till lunch, and Jake, our Science teacher, was lecturing us about something to do with our DNA. I stared up at the clock, as though that would make it go faster. Four minutes. Once the clock said that it was twelve thirty-seven, I raised my hand.

" Yes, Tori?" Jake asked.

" Um, I have a _really _bad stomach ach. Could I go down to the office?" I asked, trying to get out of class early.

" Couldn't it wait three minutes?" He asked. Uh oh. I hadn't planned for him to ask that. I filled my mouth up with air and put my pointer finger and my middle finger on my lips and made a grunting sound, giving the impression I was about to throw up.

" Actually, go ahead, Tori. Feel better." He said as I walked out. Score! I walked to my locker, grabbed my lunch, and headed down stairs and outside. I could hear voices of kids just getting out of class, and I squeezed the note in my hand tightly. I didn't know just _exactly _what was awaiting me.

" You guys, bad news." Mike said, rushing up with Renee and Josh. Derek, Sam and Craig had already gotten t the dumpster. " My parents said that I couldn't go to the game unless I go with a friend. My mom and dad have to go to this old peoples convention." He said.

" Come on, you're parents aren't that old!" I exclaimed, rolling my eyes.

" Yeah, well it's for people that have jobs, so they're old. But that's not the point. Can any of you guys give me a ride there?" He asked.

" I can." Sam said with a look of sympathy on his face.

" Cool." Mike exclaimed.

" So that was ALL you wanted to ask us about??" I snorted.

" No. I found something else out. My uncle, Felix, just got a job a Crisler Arena! He could take us all over to those places we're not allowed to be at!"

" Sweet!" We all said. This would at least help us find our way around faster. We all high-fived Mike for bringing us this vital information.

" Hey, you guys, lets go and eat. I'm about to lose my appetite from the smell of… something nasty." Renee exclaimed, plugging her nose. We all ran for the doors, only to find that they were locked.

" NO!!" I shouted, pounding on the door. " SOMEONE LET US IN!"

" PLEASE!!" Mike and Josh shouted. "LET US IN!!" Suddenly, I saw, guess who, Al walking by the door.

" AL! LET US IN!!" I shouted. He just looked at me, than walked away.

" NO!!" I guys exclaimed and started kicking the door. Al started to run off.

" Ugh." I sighed, slouching down onto the ground. " I give up."

" Wait, Tori!" Renee exclaimed. " I have an idea!" She started bouncing up and down.

" What's your idea?" I asked her.

" Text Miranda!" She exclaimed. "Tell her to come and open the doors."

" Okay!" I said, pulling out my cell phone. I flipped it open, went to the menu, and started typing.

Mrnda! Hlp! Im traped outside da doors da wst side of da skol. PLZ cme opn da door!

I finished typing and sent the message.

" I hope she gets the message soon." Renee said, sitting down beside me. Then, a thought struck my mind.

" What if she didn't bring her cell phone to school?" I asked Renee. Her eyes popped wide open.

" Not one of your better plans." Josh commented. After about ten minutes of waiting, Miranda (luckily) came and opened the door for us.

" Thank you SO much, Miranda!" We all exclaimed, then went to lunch.

" Lunch is over! Go to class!" The lunch supervisors called as soon as we entered the lunchroom. Great. I stared down at my stomach and listened to it growl.

Tech-ed. Finally it had come! I walked into the room to find that only Josh, Sam and Mike were there.

" Hey, you guys, you know where Craig, Derek and Renee are?" I asked them.

" They had to got to the office for starting a slime fight in Science." Mike said.

" Sweet! Except that sounds like something you three would do, not them." I said, eying them curiously.

" Yeah, well we didn't start it, so don't blame us." Sam said. I sat down at a computer and started working on my iweb page we had to make in class. Suddenly, over the loudspeaker, came the voice of our principal.

" Tori Ricardo, please report to the office. Tori, to the office."

11


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

" What? I didn't steal the key to the tower!!" I exclaimed. Somebody had stolen the key to the school's tower, and I was being accused of stealing them.

" Well, I'm sorry Tori, but you're the only suspect we have, so I'm going to have to suspend you until you return the keys or we find the someone else." Said our principal, Julia.

" What??"

" Please, go get your stuff from your locker and we'll call your parents." She said. I sulked out of the office. When I got to my locker, I saw a little piece of paper sticking out of the locker. I pulled it out and unfolded it. It said:

Al stole the keys.

- Craig

Thank you Craig! Now I could hunt down the little creature, and… wait, he was in class. I went over to the mailboxes and looked for his mailbox. When I found it, I picked up a pencil and a piece of paper that was lying around and started to write:

You better tell the principal that you're the one that stole the keys; otherwise I'll make your life miserable.

- Tori

I stuffed the not in his mailbox, then went to wait for my mom.

" Tori, I'm ashamed of you. Stealing form your school?? That's just unlike you!" My mom exclaimed as I got in the car.

" Mom, it wasn't me. _Someone _accused me of it. I wouldn't steal the keys. They're just suspending me because I'm their only suspect."

" Well, that stinks." My mom said in reply. "Well, since you didn't really do it, lets go shopping!" I know what you're thinking. My mom is WAY too easy on me. Well, that's not it. Over the years, I've been building up her trust, so now she trusts me so much that if I say I didn't do something, she just believes me. It's kind of cool.

That afternoon at the mall, my mom and I bought a bunch of CD's by bands I like, and my mom bought a bunch of… actually, I'm not sure what. She spent all her time in Forever 21 (More like forever 45) while I was in FYE music store. When we got home, there was a message on the answering machine. It was from Julia.

" Hello, we are very sorry about the mix up. We have caught the real thief, so Tori may return to school on Thursday." She said.

" Good. You need a good education." My mom sighed. After that we had dinner and I went to bed.

" Tori? TORI?" My teacher exclaimed.

" Wha… what?" I said, lifting my head off the desk. I must have fallen asleep in the middle of Math class! Well, you couldn't blame me. It was the end of the day.

" WHY are you sleeping in the middle of class?" She asked.

" Uhh… I didn't get any sleep last night?" I tried.

" Nice try. Detention during Tech-ed." Ugh. Well, at least I could look forward to going to the mall tonight with Renee, Derek and Sam.

Detention was horrible. I sat there, trying to finish my work while other people were throwing paper airplanes and spitting spitballs. It was just like Detention you see in those movies. When I got out of Detention, I met up with Renee and she started bragging about how much fun Tech-ed was.

" Renee, that's great." I said, trying to explain that I wasn't taking the bus today.

" Come on, we're going to miss the bus." She exclaimed, dragging me with her.

" No! I'm walking to the library with Josh and Craig to look up stuff about Crisler Arena, you know, secret rooms, how their security is, stuff like that." I said.

" Oh, well why didn't you tell me?" She asked, confused.

" Because from there we're going to walk home, and you live on the opposite side of town, so it'd be hard." I lied. The truth was that we WERE walking home, but we didn't invite her because she's kind of… a loud mouth. She's always talking, and we'd never get anything done if she came.

" Oh, that's okay then." She snuffled. She turned away with a sad look on her face.

" But I'll see you at the mall tonight, right?" I asked, trying to cheer her up. She turned around and smiled and exclaimed: "Yeah, see you tonight!" After Renee went and got on her bus, I waited for Josh and Craig to some It seemed like hours before they finally came running down the cement-covered hill.

" Let's go!" They exclaimed, and we started walking.

By the time we got to the library, it was four o'clock.

"Uhh!" I exclaimed. " I have to be home in an hour and a half!"

" Well, it's not MY fault that we're late!" Josh said innocently. Craig and I both started laughing.

" That's the thing, Josh, It is!" Craig snorted.

" If you hadn't BEGGED us to stop at Taco Bell, we might have been here fifteen minutes ago!" I laughed. Josh even started laughing a little bit. Once we were all done laughing, we went and asked the librarian if we could use the computers to 'work on a project.' Once she scanned our cards, we all went and got on the computers and started to look up Crisler Arena, Crisler Arena Security, etc. Craig and Josh weren't having very much luck, but I had hit the jackpot with the security info.

_Crisler Arena's security is extremely tight. Anyone caught in areas they shouldn't be will be sent out of the building and banned from the Arena for a year._

I gulped. NONE of us wanted to get banned.

_Places like the catwalk, the basement, and the roof are strictly off limits to the public with or without employee permission._

That was it! That was where we could look, but what if we were caught? What if someone found out about our plans? What if it all backfired… and we _couldn't _save our school?


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Oh man. I couldn't risk getting into trouble again. That would be the third time this week, and I would be grounded for sure, plus lose all my mom's trust for me. I didn't want to get banned from Crisler Arena either… what was I going to do?? I grabbed my pillow and hit myself in the head with it. This was hopeless. I might as well just give up on book. There were all the cons about searching for it, and even if we don't get caught, who guarantees that we'll even find the book? It was just too risky. I'd have to tell the gang that I wouldn't be helping them tomorrow.

"So honey, are you ready to go?" My mom yelled from the kitchen.

"Yeah, be out in a second." I shouted back, sitting up and pulling my shoes on. I rushed for the door, grabbing my sweatshirt and pulling the door open. My mom and I jumped into the car, buckled our seatbelts, and took off. Once we got there, I saw Renee, Derek and Sam waiting at the front door for me.

" Thanks mom!" I exclaimed, jumping out the door.

I'll be back here at seven-thirty to pick you up!" She shouted right before I closed the door. I headed for the double doors of the mall, and Renee rushed out into the cold to meet me.

" Come on!" She exclaimed, running back inside. I rushed in after her.

" Let's go to Arby's!" Derek exclaimed. That what he _always _wanted to do first. We walked into Arby's ready to order, when we saw the extremely long line.

" Why don't we go to café in the center of the mall?" I suggested.

" Sure, I guess." Derek said sadly. As we made our way to the food court, I tried to tell Sam, Renee and Derek that I wasn't going to help find the book, but Renee kept interrupting me. After a while, I got so caught up in all the fun, I totally forgot about finding the book.

" See you guys tomorrow, right?" Renee asked as we all waited out front for our parents. Renee's mom and pulled up, and Renee was stepping into the car.

" Yeah! Of course!" We all exclaimed.

" Can't wait for the game!" She shouted as she drove off. Suddenly, it all came back to me. I felt like someone had dropped a rock down my throat and into my stomach. I didn't want to get in trouble, but wouldn't I also be letting them down??

"Hey, you guys, everyone can still make it to the game tonight, right?" Mike asked as we all filed into the lunchroom.

" Yeah, right." We all said as Craig, Renee and I went to get in line for hot lunch. I poked my head above everyone else to see what was for lunch. Ugh.

" Ugh, lint sticks." I told the other two. They were really waffle sticks, but we called them lint sticks because a lot of the time we found little pieces of what seemed to be lint.

" Oh great." Renee said, sulking her shoulders. Once we got our stuff and sat down, everyone else started chatting up a storm about finding the book.

" Tori, aren't you excited?" Renee asked, looking over at me to see my disappointed face.

" You guys, you guys!" I exclaimed, trying to get everyone's attention. They all stopped talking and looked over at me.

" You guys, I was reading up on the security, and it says that anyone caught in area's they shouldn't be will be banned from the Arena for a year!" Everyone started to look a little nervous about our big plans except Mike.

" Well, then we won't get caught! You guys, we have to do this!" He said. Everyone else agreed except for me.

" Come on Tori, this was your idea in the first place!" Craig pressed.

" Yeah, you're the one who always says to live life without rules!" Josh exclaimed.

" Come on!" They all pressured.

" No! You guys, I'm NOT coming!!" I blurted out, picking up my tray and leaving the table. They all looked at me with surprised looks. They had never seen me this angry before, but I didn't care. If they wanted to go and get themselves banned from the stadium.

" Tori, look," Renee pleaded during Tech-ed.

" No, Renee, I heard what you and the others had to say. I'm still coming to the game, but I'm NOT going to help you guys get into trouble!" I exclaimed, not even looking at her so she wouldn't see the anger in my eyes.

" Tori, you HAVE to come! We need you! We can't do this without you!"  
" Well than I guess you won't do it then!" All of a sudden, Renee gasped.

" Well, then I CHALLENGE you to come with us and help!" She exclaimed, as though she had just solved the key to the universe.

" Still, it's a no!" I said.

" What? What?? But… but you're Tori Ricardo! You NEVER turn down a challenge! Tori, what's wrong with you? You've… you've changed!" That was what made the angriest out of everything she had said. The bell rang, and I picked up my books, getting ready to leave.

" You know, right now my problem is YOU, so just get out of my face and leave me alone!" I barked. She backed away from me with a look of horror on her face.

" You're not the Tori that's been my best friend since third grade. You're not the Tori that gave us the idea to search for the book. You're a totally different Tori. You've changed. Seventh grade has made you crazy, filling your head up with false ideas, making you back down from a challenge, which is something the sixth grade Tori would do. And you're definitely not Tori, my best friend." She muttered.

" Whatever." I sighed and walked out of the classroom. Ugh. I had just lost my best friend, and I was probably about to lose the other five friends I had.

" Ugh, mom, I'm not sure I want to go to the game tonight." I said as I walked in the front door after the bus dropped me off. I was remembering the horrible things that Renee had said. How could she be so rude? I just don't want to get in trouble!

" Why not, sweety?" My mom asked. That was just typical mom behavior. She always was asking me " Why?" or "How come?" It gets _so _annoying.

" Well, I'm not feeling very good." I lied. I just couldn't tell her what happened that day.

" Well, I better take your temperature. I hope that you don't have that new bug that's going around." She said, rushing into the bathroom to grab the thermometer. " I mean, we want to make sure you can make it to the game with all of your friends, right?"

" Uhh, right." I said. She came out of the bathroom and stuck the thermometer into my mouth. After a minute, mom pulled it out of my mouth and declared:

" Honey, your temperature's fine. That's good. Why don't you go rest, and I'll tell you when supper's ready. Then we'll go to the game!" She exclaimed in her oh-so-cheery mom voice. I walked up the stairs and into my room. I plopped down onto my bed and stared at the ceiling for about an hour.

" Honey! Dinner's ready!" My mom shouted from downstairs. See, we usually have dinner at, like, 4:30 or 5:00 on game nights, so that I can pig out on snacks. I rushed downstairs to see that my mom had prepared, which is extremely rare, Kraft macaroni and cheese. I sat down at the table and started to gulp down the food in huge clumps. By the time I was finished with two huge servings of Mac & cheese, it was 5:45.

" Oh, time to go Tori!" She exclaimed, clearing the table. I grabbed my dish, put it in the kitchen sink, and went into our mudroom so I could get my shoes and coat on.

" Well, we're here!" My mom exclaimed as we pulled into a parking spot. We got out of the car and walked up to the front gate. When we got to the ticket stand, I noticed somebody on the big screen, somebody _familiar. _Then, it struck me like a thump on the head.

" That's Renee! She actually came!" I exclaimed a little louder than I intended.

" What do you mean by 'She actually came?'" My mom turned around and asked.

"Uhh… She thought she wouldn't be able to come." I lied. I was worried that none of them were going to come because of me. My mom bought the tickets, and we went and gave them to the security… person. They came!

" Hey, Renee, here comes _Tori_! Little miss _won't back down from a challenge _actually showed up!" Sam exclaimed. I looked up to see Tori approach the section we were sitting in. I turned my head so she wouldn't see the frustration in my eyes. She had changed. I heard that seventh grade was supposed to make people do crazy things, but I didn't think she would change _this _much. I was still angry from the argument we had had in Tech-ed today, and I bet she was too. Tori came and sat down over next to Mike and Josh, the only two who didn't think she ha d lost it. They said they understand why Tori would be scared to be banned from the Arena. They said that they were also scared of being caught, but they also had better records when it comes to getting trouble. If Tori wasn't in trouble one minute, she was the next. I truthfully can't see how they can just let her off the hook like that.

" Hey, we're getting ready to leave for operation AA. Pass it on." Derek whispered. This is how we decided we'd tell each other to leave for the mission. I whispered the same thing into Craig's ear, and since he was the last one in the row, now all we had to do was wait for Mike's signal.

" Uhh, I'm going to go sit on the other side of the Arena to get a better view, okay dad?" Mike asked his dad. Everyone except Tori said

" Yeah same here."

" I think I'll stay here to watch." Tori commented, but nobody heard her. We were all getting our stuff, leaving for the most important thing in our 12 year old lives. I stood up, grabbed my coat, and headed toward the big MICHIGAN sign that lead out of the Arena part, and into the concession part.

" Okay, you guys, I talked to my uncle, and he said he could " Give us a tour" of the off-limits parts of the building." Mike told us as we walked away. "We have to meet him in maintenance closet number 17." As we walked toward the closet, Mike told us that we had to get in without being seen, otherwise, he would lose his job. We found the Maintenance closet and snuck in. Mike's uncle wasn't there yet, so we sat down. Suddenly, the door flung open, but it _wasn't _Mike's Uncle.

" Well, I'm here, and I'm ready to go."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

" Tori!" Renee exclaimed, looking up at me. " You changed your mind?"

" Well, I couldn't let you guys down, plus, who cares about another little scratch mark on my permanent record?" I smiled.

" Look, Tori, I'm sorry about what happened today at Tech-ed. I was just angry that you had backed out." Renee apologized.

" Don't sweat it. It's not your fault. I shouldn't have backed out on you guys at the last minute." I said. " So, where's your uncle?"

" He's not here yet." Mike mumbled, looking down at the ground, disappointed.

" Oh, well, if he's not here soon, we'll have to go on without him." I said sadly. Mike nodded his head slowly.

After a couple of minutes of waiting, we decided that his uncle wasn't coming, so we started to talk about places we could go to search.

" We could check up on the catwalk." I suggested.

" Sweet, let's go there first. Then where?" Mike said.

" The basement. What about the Basement?" Craig asked.

"Good idea. Then we can check out the maintenance closets."

" Okay, you guys, even if we don't save the school, remember, we gave it our best shot, and we'll all try to go to the same private school!" I joked.

" And remember one thing:" Renee started out my favorite line for me.

" Rules will be broken today!" I exclaimed, and we all crept out of the closet.

" Okay, so, how do we get to the catwalk?" I asked Mike.

" I don't…" He started, but Josh interrupted him.

" That way!" He said, pointing at a door.

" How do you know that?" Sam asked.

" Just follow me." Josh said, reaching for the doorknob. Surprisingly, it was unlocked. We walked down a _long_, dark hallway. Final, we came to a door that read: TO THE CATWALK.

" Wow, how did you do that?" Derek exclaimed.

" Lucky guessing." We this time, when he went to open the door, it was locked.

" Oh, great!" Josh exclaimed, kicking at the bottom of the door. The door jiggled, as though it would fall, but than stopped. The kick hadn't been hard enough.

" Wait, stand back." I said, stepping closer to the door. I got my foot ready, than gave the door an extremely strong kick right by the doorknob. The doorknob fell out, and the door creaked open.

" Wow, either you have a really strong kick, or that was a really crappy door." Craig joked.

" Both." I replied, prying the door open and squeezing through. When I came out, I saw two doors.

" Let's go through… That one." I said, pointing at the door on our right hand side. I walked over and opened it. There was a giant stairway, leading to another door. I stepped up, with Renee and Josh right behind, and everyone else behind them. Once I got to the top, I opened the door to see pipes, hundreds of them. I stepped out of the stairway to feel something wet and cold hit my head. I looked up to see the night sky, twinkling above me. We were on the roof! I looked around to see headlights streaming into the parking lot of the Arena. I heard the door slam. I spun around. Every one of us was outside, and the door had closed.

" No!" I exclaimed. Sam spun around from his spot at the back of the group and tried to open the door. It wouldn't budge.

" Oh, great!" I exclaimed, throwing my hands up in the air. I was freezing cold because I didn't have a jacket on and it was raining. I started shivering.

" Now how are we supposed to find the book?" Mike asked. " Now we'll be stuck up here forever, and NOBODY will ever know to come and look for us here!" Wow, I had never seen Mike this negative.

" Mike, SOMEBODY is bound to find us!" I exclaimed.

" Yeah, but then what? We'll have been found out! We won't get to find the book, we won't ever get to come back to Crisler Arena, and we'd have let the entire school down! I mean, the only way down would be to… to jump off the roof!" He exclaimed. Suddenly, something clicked in my head.

" That's it!" I shouted as a smile crept across my face.

" What, we'll jump off the roof?" Josh asked.

" Exactly."

" Uhh, I think that when Tori kicked that door down, she lost a little bit of brainage. Are you crazy?? We'll DIE if we jumped of the roof!" Derek exclaimed.

" Not how I plan to jump off." I smiled. I started to run to the edge of the Arena that was facing the football field.

" If we jump of here, we only fall about 15 feet, and we land on soft grass!"

" ONLY 15 feet?! Tori IS losing it!" Sam exclaimed.

" Well, do you have any _better _idea's?" I sneered.

" Yeah, actually I do!" Josh said, staring at something on the _way _opposite side of the roof.

" What?" We all asked at the same time.

" We'll take the door."

" What? The doors locked! Maybe Tori's craziness is contagious!" Mike exclaimed.

" No, not that door. THAT door!" He said, pointing at something standing up out of the roof in the distance. We all started to run towards it, forgetting that the roof was slippery. The door was pretty close to one of the edges of the roof and… you get the picture. As we all slid to a stop, Josh stumbled and went flying. Then, it all appeared in slow motion for the next… 2 minutes. Josh's feet fell out from under him, and he started to mumble down the roof… into the parking lot. We all stared and… Okay, so that's not _really _what happened. Josh did slip of the roof, and started to tumble down… but this is where I jumped in… literally. I dived and grabbed his arm just before it disappeared over the edge. Everyone gasped.

" Help!" Josh shouted. Renee, Mike and Sam rushed over to try to help me pull him back onto the roof. I mean, it was just like in those TV shows, except real.

" It's opened!" Craig and Derek shouted. _What _could they possibly be doing at a time like this?? Finally, we hauled Josh back onto the roof. He as panting and his eyes were blinking like: Did that _really _just happen?

" Hurry. Craig and Derek got the door opened." I stood up and started to walk over towards the door. I was totally soaked to the bone. Once I stepped through the door, I saw a long, narrow stairway leading down.

" Okay, haven't we been through enough long, dark hallways and stairways?" I sighed.

" Well, if we haven't found the book yet, obviously the answer is no." Sam replied. Once we all got to the top of the stairs, there was a little landing. Craig, who was at the front of the group, opened another door. This time, instead of a long, dark, quiet hallway, we were greeted by the sounds of screaming people, and what we saw was a long path, being held up by thick, metal chains. Craig took a step out onto the path. It wobbled a little, but then stopped.

" We made it. We're on the catwalk!" I exclaimed.

" Shh!" Renee and Josh shushed at the same time.

" We don't want to get found out, so we can't risk anybody hearing or seeing us." Mike directed.

" Sorry." We all walked out onto the catwalk, and then took a few more steps to make sure it was stable enough to hold all seven of us. We started to walk to the center… box… thing, when we heard someone behind us. I spun around. There was a man standing there in a janitor's suit. I was about to tell everyone to run when I heard Mike gasp.

" Uncle Tom!" He exclaimed.

" Mike! I was looking all over for you and your friends!" His uncle exclaimed.

" So, did you come to help us find our way around?"

" No. I came searching for you to warn you that somebody found out that you kids were sneaking around the building, and the security's comin' lookin' for you!" Uncle Tom exclaimed.

" Uhh, now we've gotta worry about finding our way around here AND security guards!" I exclaimed.

" You kids had better get out of here. There's nothing to see." Mike's uncle said.

" Isn't there a little center room up here?" I asked. " Somewhere for storage?"

" No, It only looks that way because of the plumbing. There isn't a chance that the book is up here. Sorry, kids." Mike's uncle said and walked out the door.

" Uhh. Well, that eliminates one possibility." Sam said, lowering his head.

" Come on, you guys, while we're up here, we might as well take the long way around. I mean, will we ever get this opportunity again?" I smiled. We all started to walk the opposite way Mike's uncle had just exited. Suddenly, there was a burst of music. It was _already_ halftime of the first game? We didn't have much time left. Then, I heard it. Blaring from the speakers was my favorite song. Okay, so maybe not my _favorite _song. I was more into rock bands. But this was one of those songs that would be perfect to play in, like, a movie I might write. The song was "Things I'll Never Say" by Avril Lavigne. I felt kind of like dancing, but then a thought struck all seven of us at the same time.

" You guys, what if our parents come looking for us?" Mike asked before anyone else had enough time to.

" I… I don't know." We all said.

" Me neither." Josh admitted. We all stared at him. Josh _always _had an answer for _everything_. This was just… unlike him. Maybe seventh grade has changing everyone. I had actually turned down a challenge, Josh didn't have an answer for something… what… or who next?

We all started to run, but realized that with every thud from our feet, we were shaking the catwalk. Someone was sure to notice us up there… where we weren't supposed to be.

" You guys, we need to slow down!" I exclaimed as loudly as I could without being heard.

" But we don't have much time!" Craig whispered.

" I know, but would you guys rather rush and get caught, or walk and still stand a chance at finding the book?" I asked. Everybody agreed on it. Even if it meant wasting time, we would have to slow down so we wouldn't look suspicious. We wondered through the catwalk for a while, trying to find another exit. When we finally DID find a door, it took a lot of

wobbling the door to get it open. I poked my head in to see… guess... another long, dark, hallway. Why is it always the long dark hallway? Why can't it ever be the happy, bright, sunshiny hallway?? WHY?? We all stepped into the hallway, and the door slapped behind us. I flinched. I started to walk, when I tripped over a… something. It was too dark to see anything, so Renee started walking and tumbled over me. We both stood up, and I could feel the front of my mouth hurting, as though… actually, this time I didn't have one of my ever-so odd or gruesome descriptions. I ran my tongue over my front teeth.

" Ah shitoki!" I exclaimed.

" What?" Everyone asked. I only used that phrase when something really bad happened.

" I chipped my tooth when I tripped over that… thing!" I exclaimed. I could feel a big triangular hole in my right front tooth. Renee and Sam dropped onto the ground, trying to find what I had tripped over. I picked it up and started to feel it. It was long, skinny, and metal. It was… a… pole from what I could tell.

" Hey, you guys, I found… a pole." I said, rubbing my hands along the cold of the metal.

" Well… what are we going to use the pole for?" Renee asked.

" Uhh, I don't know. It might come in handy. So, WHERE exactly are we going next?" I asked.

" The basement." Mike replied. I gulped. We all started walking again. After a while, we came to a door that had a big EXIT sign. I pushed the door open and stepped out. We were standing in the hall outside of the Arena, right by the bathrooms.

" You guys, we have to find out HOW to get to the basement before we can go to the basement, you know." Josh said. He had a pretty good point.

" Wait, let's try going this way." I said, pointing towards an open door that showed stairs leading down. I crept in first, only to realize it was the Women's Basketball team's work out gym. I heard voices.

" Go back up!" I whispered, trying to get back up the stairs as soon as possible.

" Hey, who are you?" Someone shouted. I turned around to see Kelly Helvey.

" Who, me?" I asked, pointing at myself.

" Well, there's nobody else behind you, is there?" I looked up behind me to see that everyone else had just made it to the top and out of view. Suddenly, a plan jumped into my mind.

" Oh, yes! I am ze new janitor!" I exclaimed, speaking with an accent that sounded like that french guy from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

" Well, what can I do for ya?" She asked. I was surprised she thought a twelve year old looked like a janitor.

" Um, yes, uh, could you point me in ze direction of ze basement?" I asked in my crappiest accent of someone from… some other place.

" Uh, yeah. It's down the hall, and when you get to the Tennis trophy case, there'll be a door on your right that says caution." She said.

" Why, um, thank you vely much." I said and ran the rest of the way up the stairs.

" Omg, did you get away with that??" Renee asked once I was at the top of the stairs.

" No. They sent my to Security." I said sarcastically.

" Wow, that really stinks." Renee said, playing along.

" This way, you guys." I rushed, flicking my hand in the right direction. We walked for about five minutes until we saw the Tennis trophey case.

" This way! In here!" I exclaimed, pointing towards the door. We all rushed over and tried to open it, but it was locked.

" Oh great! What do we do now?" Craig asked, throwing his hands up in the air.

" We steal the keys." I murmured mischievously.

" What? Tori, are you crazy??" Josh asked.

" No, I'm just thinking of our only option. Excuse me for trying." I snapped. Josh backed off.

" Tori, cool off. It's just a book, and it's okay if we don't find it." Renee whispered. " We'll all try to get into the same private school. Okay?"

" No!" I exclaimed. " You guys don't get it, do you?" I asked them.

" What is there to get? We'll all just, go to the same private school if we don't find the book!" Mike exclaimed.

" That's just it! My parents can't _afford _to send me to private school! We'd have to sell our house we have now and move to Dexter, or somewhere where the taxes are cheap! I'm already living on the border of Ann Arbor in Scio township because the taxes are so high everywhere else in Ann Arbor! For me, we _have _to find this book if we're going to ever go to the same school all together!" I cried. I plopped down next to the door and put my head on my knees.

" Gosh, Tori, we never… we never knew!" Renee said sympathetically. "We're sorry." Everyone else nodded their heads.

" If it means us all being able to go to the same school, then we'll try a lot harder to find this book." Sam said.

"Thanks, you guys," I said, standing up. " And sorry about freaking out."

" It's alright. Now, let's go steal those keys!" Josh exclaimed.

" Hey, what do you think _you're _doing here?"

9


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

I spun around to see Al standing about 10 feet away from us.

" What are you doing here, Tori? I thought you said you had other plans?" Al asked again.

" Exactly. These are my other plans." I said smugly. Most people I would have made up some nice excuse like ' Oh, someone already asked me.' But I was NOT afraid to be mean to Al. He ruined my life in 5th grade, and I wasn't afraid to ruin his life this year.

" Well, what are you guys doing? Could I join?" He asked.

" Oh, sorry. This thing is only for people who _didn't _attempt to ruin my life in fifth grade." I smirked. Everyone giggled.

" Hey, are you guys doing something you're not suppose to do?" He asked. Before I could lie and tell him no, Mike blurted out " Maybe."

" Why are you guys gathered around that door? Huh! Are you trying to break in? You're going to be in so much trouble!" Al exclaimed.

" We _won't_ get in trouble because _nobody's _going to tell!" I barked.

" Well I guess that makes me a nobody." He said. Before I could do anything, one thought ran through my head, and I blurted it out.

" RUN!" I shouted. We all spun around and fled for our lives. Over my shoulder I shouted " Tattletale!" We had run half way around the building when we slowed down our pace down.

" Great, now we're going to have the entire security following us all over here!" Derek exclaimed.

" Hey, you guys! We're right by the ticket station, and there's no one in it!" I exclaimed. Everyone's head swung around and we all looked at the stand. There was a door next to it, and it was open! How lucky could we get? Renee and I crept into the stand. Right away, I saw the keys hanging on a nail in the wall. I grabbed and we rushed out.

" I got them! Let's go to the basement door!" I exclaimed and started running again. I was exhausted, but fueled with a new energy. Everyone was lagging behind me, so I slowed down and let them catch up. Soon enough, we made it to the door, and I grabbed one of the keys, jamming it into the keyhole. It didn't fit. I tried the next couple, but they didn't fit either. Suddenly, we all heard footsteps, echoing down the hall, coming towards us.

" Hurry!" Craig whispered. I tried another key. Didn't fit. The footsteps were coming closer. I tried one more key. It didn't fit either. The footsteps were getting so close that I felt like I was going to die. I was pretty sure that everyone else could hear my heart beating as loud as the footsteps. I tried one more key. It went in! It fit! I spun it to the right, then the left. The door creaked open.

" Everybody in!" I rushed. Everyone crammed in through the doorway. I squeezed in and closed the door just before the person rounded the corner. I looked around. There was a flight of stairs.

" Go down!" I whispered. We all hurled ourselves down the stairs and rested on the landing, just out of view for someone who opened the door.

" That was close." I mumbled.

" A little bit to close." Josh gasped. We all sat there for a couple more minutes, then stood up and walked down the rest of the stairs.

" Where, are we?" Renee asked, looking around at the cobwebs on the walls surrounding us.

" We're under the court." I murmured, listening to the sounds of feet pounding above us.

" Look! I see the door!" Derek exclaimed, looking through the darkness.

" It looks like nobody's been down here for ages!" Mike whispered.

" I don't think anyone has." I replied. I went to grab the doorknob, but it fell off in my hands! The door creaked open. I tried to pull it open more, but fell back in the attempt. It wouldn't budge. I squeezed through the tight and small space that was left. The room I had just entered was pitch black. I swung my hands around by the sides of the door until I felt a light switch. I flipped it on, and the room was filled with a dim yellow light. Boxes were piled up against the walls, and there was a small table in the middle of the room with empty boxes sitting around it, as though people use to come down there to eat, or play cards.

" Oh, great." I said, looking at all of the boxes. " This could take _forever_!" As everyone else squeezed in, I walked over to one of the boxes up against a wall and pulled it down from the stack of other boxes it was sitting on. Once I pulled it down, I started sorting through it, like everybody else.

" Find anything?" I asked everyone.

" Nope." They all replied, putting their boxes back up and taking down new ones. I did the same. It felt like an hour before we had checked all the boxes, and when we were done, we were so weak, we all felt like giving up.

" You guys, we can't give up now!" Mike exclaimed.

" Who said we were giving up? Lets just take a short break!" I sighed.

" It's nine o'clock." Mike said, looking at his watch. I shot up from where I was resting on one of the boxes.

" Let's go!" I exclaimed, and everybody stood up reluctantly. We all squeezed out the door and walked back up the creepy, dark staircase. When we got to the door, I slowly and cautiously opened it. I poked my head out. The bright lights hurt my eyes because I was so used to the darkness, but I could see well enough to tell that nobody was there to see us.

" Some on, you guys, the cost is clear." I said. We all crept out, squinting our eyes. Sam, who was the last one out, closed the door behind us. We all moved away from the door and pretended to be relaxing.

" Where do we go next?" I asked.

" Maintenance closets. It's the only place that they store storage and stuff." Mike explained.

" Okay. Let's start in this one." I said, pointing at the closet sitting right in front of us. It was labeled MAINTENANCE 2.

" Okay, so the maintenance closets are labeled with only even numbers, and there are only five of them, so it shouldn't take us that long." Mike told us.

" And where did you find this out?" Josh asked.

" Where else?" Mike asked.

" The internet." We all said. That was what Mike always used as his resources. See, his dad owns a laptop business, or something like that, so Mike always has the latest techno stuff. He's got his own wireless laptop, blackberry, computer in his room, etc. He is ALWAYS on the computer or, like all of us, getting into trouble and being grounded from his computers. So, back to the story.

" Come on, you guys, let's hurry. I want to find the book and go back to watching the game." Renee exclimed, standing up from the chair she was sitting in. We all walked over to the door and pretended to be admiring the men's basketball case while Mike tried to open the door.

" It's locked!" He exclaimed. " What do we do now?" I stuck my hand into my pocket and grabbed the keys we had stolen early. I handed them to him and went back to 'admiring' the trophy case in front of me.

" I'm in!" He exclaimed, and one by one, we filed in. Once we were all in the closet, we realized that it was _way _too small to fit all seven of us. Renee, Sam, Derek and Craig stepped outside. Josh, Mike and I started to sort through the boxes, looking for the book.

" Hey, I think I found it!" I exclaimed. Wouldn't it have been wonderful if it had been that easy? Well, sadly fate wasn't on our side at that moment. I pulled a thick book out of one of the boxes. There was no title. I opened it and started to flip through it. It turns out it was all about cars. Ugh. "Never mind." I said, setting the book back down. Once we all realized that the book wasn't in this closet, we walked outside. We stopped by three more closets before realizing that the book _wouldn't _be in one of the closets.

" This is hopeless. We'll never find the book at this rate! It's already nine-thirty!" Sam exclaimed.

" Wait, I've got it!!" I exclaimed, bouncing up and down. I was so happy. I had the perfect idea!

" What? What is it?" Everyone else asked.

" The announcer's office!" I smiled.

" That's great, but how are we going to get in there without the _announcer _seeing us?" Derek asked.

" Well, sorry. You don't have to be so negative. Maybe he took a break." I suggested. " It's worth a shot." We all walked to the nearest entrance of the stadium part. We climbed up the stairs leading to the balcony. We ran all the way up to the top when I turned around.

" Oh, no." I said, starting to breath fast.

" What?" Sam asked.

" She's afraid of heights." Renee explained.

" Well, it's not to bad, is it?" Mike asked.

" OH, it's worse than you would think for Renee." My eyes widened. I sat down on the steps and looked down at everything below me.

" Oh so high. Too, too high." I whispered, rocking back and forth.

" Oh no." Josh said.

" What?" Renee asked. Josh whispered something into Renee's ear, and her eyes started bugging out. " Oh, man, you're right. We better get her into a seat, and quickly." Renee said, helping me up. We all walked up a couple more steps and Renee had me sit down in a seat. Her and everybody else walked over to the announcer's booth.

" It's empty and the door's wide open!" Renee exclaimed. I stood up and walked over. We all filed into the room.

" Okay, we don't have much time… so tear up the place!" Mike exclaimed. This was probably the best idea I had heard all night. I ran toward a bookshelf and started ripping books and papers out. Things were flying everywhere. I looked down at the bottom of the box I had just been ripping apart. Nothing. I started ripping through more boxes. Still nothing.

" You guys, this isn't working." I said, spinning around. The floor had papers all over it, and Josh had rushed over to the window. Then he sun around.

" Oh, shit." He exclaimed.

" What?" We all asked.

" The announcer's coming and the place is a mess!" He said. For some reason, his voice seemed to be echoing. Suddenly, my hands rested on Josh's hand. My mouth dropped open and my eyes widened. " What?" He asked.

" Your hand." I gulped. He looked over and saw that his hand was on the button for the speaker. Everybody had just heard him.

" Run!" I shouted. We all bolted for the opposite door we had came in.

" This way!" I exclaimed, pointing not towards the stairs, but towards the rows of seats. We would run through them, halfway around the stadium. Five minutes later, we were opposite the announcer's room, panting in pain.

" I… can't… run… anymore." I sighed, relaxing in one of the seats. I'll beat you think something _horrible_ would happen just then, to make things worse. Well, you're right. It wasn't that we were caught by the security or anything. Something way worse happened.

" Hey, down in front!" Somebody shouted.

" Oh no." I mumbled. It was, guess who, Al.

" Ah ha!" He exclaimed, standing up. " I caught you in the act! There's no way you guys can get away this time!" Suddenly, I had an idea. " Any last words before you get banned from the stadium?" He asked.

" Um, no, but could I have some popcorn?" I asked, noticing the popcorn in his hand.

" Oh, sure." He said and handed the cardboard box to me. I opened it and threw all the popcorn in his face. We all made a break away. We ran down the stairs and made our way out to the hallway around the arena.

" You guys, there's only one more place to check." Mike explained as we walked around towards gate c.

" Where?" Josh asked.

" Maintenance closet 10." He said, stopping right in front of the closet. I gulped. He was right there was nowhere else to look.

" Is it still unlocked?" Renee asked. Mike turned the handle and it creaked open.

" I'll go in." I said. The room was big enough to fit four of us searching through boxes. Renee, Derek and Josh also came in. I pulled a box off a shelf. I blinked my eyes and sniffled a little bit.

" Tori, are you okay?" Renee asked.

" This is it." I replied. " This is our last chance to find the book. Our last chance to save the school. Our last chance to for the crew to stay the crew. There's no going back now, Renee. We have to finish what we've started." I blinked again. The room felt like it was getting darker and darker, smaller and smaller. I thought I was losing it, or maybe I would fall unconscious at that very moment. But I didn't. We all started shifting through different boxes. Nothing. We went through a second round and a third round of boxes. Still nothing.

" That's it." Josh exclaimed, standing up. " There are no more boxes. There's no book, and there's no hope."

" Maybe the book isn't in Crisler Arena." I suggested, but that wouldn't matter anyways. Suddenly, I something stuffed into a corner.

" Hey, what's this?" I asked, pulling it out from the corner. It was another box, except it was covered with dust and cobwebs. Everyone knelt back down and started to dust it off. I slowly lifted the lid off of the box and peered inside. There was a bunch of old papers. One by, we pulled them all out, examining them. They looked like blueprints for the building.

" Wow, these are amazing." Renee whispered, looking at the papers. They were pretty cool. Then I saw something. It looked like a book. I picked it up very carefully. I was scared to open it. I didn't want to open it and find another car guide thing. Except this book looked different. It had a black leather cover and pages of gold. I ran my hand over the cover, shifting some of the dust off. There was something… engraved into the cover.

" Anne… Anne Arbour!!" I exclaimed, opening the book. Everyone looked over. Written on the first page in fancy cursive was the title we had all been dying to see:

**The Great Escape of Anne Arbour and the Cadillac Cowboys**

We, we had found the book! I jumped up and almost screamed. We all ran of the closet with huge smiles on our faces.

" We found it!" I shouted. Mike, Craig and Sam's faces lit up. I held the book up in the air, as though it was a trophy, and we were a team, declaring our victory. Renee hugged me, and everyone else was high-fiving each other. At that moment, I felt a tear trickle down my cheek.

" Tori, why are you crying? We found it!" Josh exclaimed.

" I know, I'm just so… happy." I sniffled. This was a big surprise for the guys because none of them had ever seen me cry before. Suddenly, we heard the final bell ring. The game was over. We all quickly ran for our 'new' seats. Luckily, they were pretty close, so by the time our parents came over towards us, we were there, talking to each other. When I looked at my mom, she had an angry look on her face. So did the other parents. I started to get nervous. Had they figured out our plan? What if they had seen our heard us while running around the stadium?

" Tori?" My mom said as she walked over. I bit my lip.

" What?" I asked.

" Where have you and your friends been? We were all so worried sick! We came over to where you were sitting and none of you were there! Where were you?" She asked strictly. I glanced over at the others. They had ' don't tell your mom and we won't tell our parents' looks in their eyes.

" I… I can't tell you." I said strongly. Her eyes widened. I had never talked back to her like that and she was surprised.

" Well, I guess you're grounded until you _can_ tell me." She replied and walked off. I grabbed my stuff, hid the book in my coat, waved good-bye to everyone else, and left. I guess that everyone else got similar punishments. I didn't get to find out. On Saturday I got an e-mail from Mike:

TO: josh,craig,tori,renee,sam,derek

FROM:mike

SUBJECT:BOOK

DATE:1/14/08

hey guys. thought i should tell u that we should probly gve the book 2 the princpal on mon. rite me back asap! meet b4 school starts 730.

-the M

I quickly replied to his letter, agreeing with him. Today, we were all normal. Monday, we would be heroes.


End file.
